Proof That Transformers: Dark Of The Moon Recycles Footage From The Island

This will blow your mind. If you see Transformers: Dark of the Moon you’ll probably be impressed away by the movie’s massive special effects. You’ll likely be impressed with the movie’s 3D too, and the filmmakers claims that the movie was shot in 3D. Don’t be. A lot of the movie’s special effects weren’t even created for the movie, apparently at least some of them were created for the little seen 2004 Michael Bay movie The Island and, oh yeah, that movie definitely was not shot in 3D.

The Island does a lot of things wrong, but one of the things it did right was a pretty spectacular freeway chase sequence involving massive car crashes and bouncing debris. Transformers: Dark of the Moon contains a similarly impressive highway scene but, oh wait, it’s not just similar it’s the same scene.

The following video provides pretty damning visual evidence that Transformers: Dark of the Moon repurposes portions of The Island. Watch and prepare to be shocked.

Very few people saw The Island, so maybe Bay thought he could get away with this. But it seems clear that, for the Transformers highway sequence at least, someone just hopped on their computer and digitally inserted a bunch of robots running around in the chase sequence from The Island. That also explains why while watching it, the 3D in that sequence might seem a little less impressive than it does in other parts of film. If it does, it’s less impressive because that scene wasn’t shot in 3D. It was shot seven years ago, back when no one was shooting anything with 3D cameras.

We’ve come to expect a lot of things from Michael Bay, but one thing you don’t normally expect, is for him to skimp on special effects. Apparently, he does. It is perhaps worth noting that an extra was critically injured, and left paralyzed, while filming one of the movie's big, highway driving stunts. It's possible that this could be the scene in question and, rather than run the risky stunt again, Bay decided to re-use old footage.

Whatever his reasons for doing it, The Island footage is there. Do you care? Let us know in the comments below.